Automatically controlling participant indication request for a virtual meeting

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for automatically controlling a participant indication request based on a context of a meeting. The controlling of the participant indication request includes automatic lowering of a raised hand. A context determiner determines the context of the meeting based on meeting data including video, audio, background acoustic data, and chat messaging. The context determiner uses a global participant indication model for determining a context that is in commonly used among participants of the meeting. An individual participant indication model captures participant-specific rules of determining a context. A meeting state manager determines a meeting state based on the context. The meeting state includes a host presentation, a participant presentation, a conversation, and a polling. A participant indication controller automatically lowers the raised hand based on a combination of the determined context and the meeting state.

BACKGROUND

Virtual meeting systems have become more popular as more meetings takeplace among remote locations due to economic and societal factors.Virtual meetings generally include transmitting video and audio contentthrough various networks including the Internet. Some traditionalvirtual meeting system provides features for participants to communicateamong each other in addition to the main video or audio communications.For example, participants exchange text messages over a chat feature andsent an alert for seeking a focus of attention from other participantsby raising a hand. Participants of the virtual meeting expect theseadditional features to keep being synchronous to progression of thevirtual meeting through video and audio for the participants of thevideo meeting to use the features effectively. Thus, developing atechnology that serves the needs of improving interactions amongparticipants during the virtual meeting would be desirable.

It is with respect to these and other general considerations that theaspects disclosed herein have been made. Also, although relativelyspecific problems may be discussed, it should be understood that theexamples should not be limited to solving the specific problemsidentified in the background or elsewhere in this disclosure.

SUMMARY

According to the present disclosure, the above and other issues areresolved by automatically updating participant indication requests ofindividual participants during a virtual meeting based on a context anda status of the virtual meeting. In aspects, a “virtual meeting” refersto a session of a teleconference among participants over a network. Theteleconference may use video, audio, or both.

The present disclosure relates to automatically controlling aparticipant indication request by a participant during a virtualmeeting. The disclosed technology uses meeting states and conversationalmodels to determine context of individual participants of a virtualmeeting based on meeting data. The meeting data includes video, audio,and acoustic data. The disclosed technology uses the determined contextin turn to determine a meeting state. In aspects, meeting statesdescribes various states of the virtual meeting. The meeting statesinclude, but are not limited to, a one-way presentation, a conversation,polling, etc. The conversational models include a global model formodeling contexts of participating the virtual meeting, which are commonamong all participants of the virtual meeting. Additionally, oralternatively, the conversational model includes individual models, forindividual participants of the virtual meeting.

A context determiner determines a context of a virtual meeting andcontexts of individual participants of the virtual meeting. The contextdeterminer identifies individuals in received meeting data (e.g., video,audio, and acoustic data) and further determines contexts of theindividuals in the virtual meeting by determining various cues made bythe individuals based on facial expressions, gestures, and utterances.

A meeting state manager determines and updates a state of the virtualmeeting based on the determined context. For example, a state may behost presentation when a host of the virtual meeting provides apresentation to participants in mainly a one-way communication.Participants may raise hands during the host presentation to request fora focus of attention from the host and give a floor for the participantto ask a question. An example state may be polling when the host takes apoll of responses by raising hands by participants of the virtualmeeting. Participants may raise hands to vote for one or more of optionsavailable.

A participant indication controller controls a state of a participantindication request of respective participants of the virtual meeting.For example, the participant indication controller may control theparticipant indication request by raising or lowering the hand of selectparticipants of the virtual meeting. In aspects, the raised hand may bedisplayed as a graphical indicator and/or an icon (e.g., a hand) ingraphical user interface associated with the participant in thegraphical user interfaces of the host and other participants of thevirtual meeting.

In aspects, a term “participant indication request” refers to a requestmade by one of participants of the virtual meeting to bring attention ora focus by at least the host of the meeting. For example, a raise handfeature is a type of a participant indication request in a virtualmeeting application system. A participant may raise hand when theparticipant has a question to the host or needs some focus from thehost. Additionally or alternatively, the participant may raise hand whenthe host takes a poll on some subject matter by responding to select oneor more options.

Issues may arise when a participant forgets or neglects lowering theraised hand, even after the participant has already spoken or asked aquestion. A hand that has been raised and unintentionally kept raisedmay cause unnecessary focus by the host, which interrupts the virtualmeeting. There may also be a case where the hand may have been keptraised because the participant wants to keep asking questions.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form, which is further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Additionalaspects, features, and/or advantages of examples will be set forth inpart in the following description and, in part, will be apparent fromthe description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive examples are described with reference tothe following figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of an example system for automaticallycontrolling participant indication requests in accordance to aspects ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of participant indication models inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of meeting states in accordance withaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of processing automatic controls ofparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example of processing automatic controls ofparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of interactive user interface of a virtualmeeting application in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of a method for automatically controllingparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example of a method for automatically controllingparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating example physical components of acomputing device with which aspects of the disclosure may be practiced.

FIG. 8A is a simplified diagram of a mobile computing device with whichaspects of the present disclosure may be practiced.

FIG. 8B is another simplified block diagram of a mobile computing devicewith which aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the disclosure are described more fully below withreference to the accompanying drawings, which from a part hereof, andwhich show specific example aspects. However, different aspects of thedisclosure may be implemented in many different ways and should not beconstrued as limited to the aspects set forth herein; rather, theseaspects are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough andcomplete, and will fully convey the scope of the aspects to thoseskilled in the art. Aspects may be practiced as methods, systems ordevices. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of a hardwareimplementation, an entirely software implementation or an implementationcombining software and hardware aspects. The following detaileddescription is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.

The present application relates to systems and methods for automaticallycontrolling participant indication requests in a virtual meeting. Aparticipant indication controller may raise or lower participantindication requests in response to detecting visual and acoustic datafrom hosts and participants of the virtual meeting. In particular, acontext determiner may determine context of an ongoing virtual meetingbased on data associated with the virtual meeting. The data may includevideo, audio speech, acoustic data, and chat texts and images amongparticipants of the virtual meeting.

The context determiner uses global participant indication models andindividual participant indication models. A participant indication modelrepresents a model that describes individual or group of individuals ina meeting, either as a global, common, or individualized model. Forexample, a global participant indication model may indicate that a videoscene of a participant of the meeting looking away toward a directionthat is more than a predefined angle from the camera, the microphone ismute, and talking with someone more than a predefined time period. Themodel may define that the video scene translates into a context wherethe participant is at least not presenting. The model may also predict aparticipant indication request that indicates lowing a hand associatedwith the participant. In some aspects, the model predicts the meetingcontext with one or more levels of confidence based on one or moreattributes of the virtual meeting. In some other aspects, theparticipant indication model is trainable using at least the meetingdata for respective participants of the virtual meeting. Additionally,or alternatively, the participant indication model may be trained usingmeeting data from prior meetings. In aspects, the prior meetings mayinclude prior virtual meetings with conversations associated with theparticipant.

As discussed in more detail below, the present disclosure relates to asystem and a method for automatically controlling participant indicationrequests in a virtual meeting. The participant indication requests mayinclude a raising hand feature of the system. For example, a participantof a virtual meeting may want to bring a focus of attention from thehost of the virtual meeting for asking a question. The participant mayplace a participant indication request by activating the raise handfeature. Activating the participant indication request (e.g., raising ahand) may cause the system to display a graphical representation (e.g.,an icon) of a hand that represents the participant at least on themeeting host's screen. This way, the host would notice the raised handand permit the participant to ask a question. In some aspects, thesystem provides a method for the participant or the host, who manuallylowers the hand of the participant once the host permits the participantto take floor of the virtual meeting and speak.

The present technology addresses the problem of a participant neglectingto deactivate the participant indication request (e.g., lowering theraised hand) even after the participant had an opportunity to bring thefocus of attention from the host and to ask a question or when theparticipant is no longer interested in the focus of attention (e.g., thetopic of the conversation changes), for example.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of an example system 100 forautomatically controlling participant indication requests in accordancewith aspects of the present disclosure. System 100 represents a systemfor a virtual meeting among one or more hosts and participants over anetwork at remote locations. System 100 includes client devices 102A-B,an application server 110, and a virtual meeting server 120. The clientdevices 102A-B communicates with the application server 110, whichincludes one or more sets of instructions to execute as applications onthe client devices 102A-B. The client device 102A includes aninteractive interface 104A. The client device 102A may be for use by ahost of a virtual meeting. The client device 102B includes aninteractive interface 104B. The client device 102B may be for use by aparticipant of the virtual meeting. The virtual meeting server 120includes a meeting data receiver 122 (video/audio), a chat controller124 (text/images), a context determiner 126 (video/audio/UI), a meetingstate manager 128, a participant indication controller 130, andparticipant indication models 132. The participant indication models 132include individual participant indication models 134, and a globalparticipant indication model 136.

The client device 102A (Host) connects with the application server 110via the network 150 to execute applications that include userinteractions through the interactive interface 104A. The interactiveinterface 104A in the client device 102A (Host) includes an interactivevirtual meeting application and/or an interactive browser for clients tointeractively participate in virtual meetings. The client device 102B(Participant) connects with the application server 110 via the network150 to execute applications that include user interactions through theinteractive interface 104B. The interactive interface 104B in the clientdevice 102B (Participant) includes an interactive virtual meetingapplication and/or an interactive browser for clients to interactivelyparticipate in virtual meetings. The application server 110 interactswith the client device 102A (Host), the client device 102B(Participant), and the virtual meeting server 120 via the network 150 toperform virtual meeting application services. In aspects, a virtualmeeting includes a teleconference among users of the system using videoand/or audio data feed among client devices at remote locations. In someaspects, the virtual meeting may include additional features including achat feature. The chat feature enables participants of the virtualmeeting to exchange texts and images, either directly between specificusers or to the floor of the meeting. The chat may take placeconcurrently while the video/audio meeting is held.

The client device 102A (Host) and the client device 102B (Participant)are computer devices. The computer devices provide user-inputcapabilities e.g., via interactive interface 104A and interactiveinterface 104B, respectively. The computer devices collectively performa virtual meeting over the network 150. In some aspects, a host of thevirtual meeting uses the client device 102A (Host). A participant of thevirtual meeting uses the client device 102B (Participant). In aspects, a“host” organizes and facilitates a virtual meeting. For example, a“participant” may join the virtual meeting in response to an invitationfor the virtual meeting.

The application server 110 is a server that enables a user (e.g., a hostand a participant) to interactively use the system 100 on the clientdevice 102A (Host) and the client device 102B (Participant)respectively. The application server 110 may comprise applicationsincluding the virtual meeting app 112. The virtual meeting app 112 mayprovide a rendering of various features of virtual meetings for viewingand for interactions by the user.

In aspects, the virtual meeting app 112 may connect with the virtualmeeting server 120 perform virtual meeting services. The virtual meetingserver 120 operates as a server of the virtual meeting applicationservice. In aspects, the virtual meeting app 112 communicates with themeeting data receiver 122 of the virtual meeting server 120 over thenetwork 150. The virtual meeting app 112 may further communicate withthe chat controller 124 of the virtual meeting server 120 to transmitand receive text and image data for chat messaging during the virtualmeeting among the users. In aspects, there may be more than one host andmore than one participants for a virtual meeting.

The virtual meeting server 120 performs virtual meetings by controllingrespective virtual meetings, receiving and sending video and audio datato the client device 102A (Host) and the client device 102B(Participants) respectively over the network 150. The virtual meetingserver 120 further provides a variety of additionally features forvirtual meeting. For example, the virtual meeting server 120 may receiveand transmit text and image data as a part of chat messaging featuresduring the virtual meeting.

The meeting data receiver 122 (video/audio) receives meeting data fromthe client device 102A (Host) and the client device 102B (Participants)during a virtual meeting. The meeting data may include video streams andaudio utterance data of the hosts and the participants and audioutterance. In aspects, the meeting data receiver 122 (video/audio) mayalso receive acoustic data for background sounds. In some aspects, themeeting data receiver 122 (video/audio) may receive data for screensharing among the hosts and the participants.

The chat controller 124 (text/images) controls chat messaging feature ofthe virtual meeting application. The chat messages enable hosts andparticipants of a virtual meeting to exchange text and image data aschat messages during the virtual meeting. The chat messages may eitherbe directly between specific hosts and participants (including betweenhosts, between participants). The chat messaging may take place whilethe hosts and the participants hold video and/or audio real timeteleconference.

The context determiner 126 determines a context of individual hosts andparticipants of the virtual meeting. In an example, the contextdeterminer 126 uses participant indication models 132 to the receivedmeeting data to determine the context. In aspects, the contextdeterminer 126 uses the individual participant indication models 134that is specific to a particular host or participant to determine acontext. For example, one of the individual participant indicationmodels 134 corresponds to a participant who routinely reactivates aparticipant indication request (e.g., a raised hand) within apredetermined time period after the system automatically deactivate theparticipant indication request. The participant manually deactivates theparticipant indication request after finishing speaking and the hoststarts to speak. Accordingly, the model for the participant may havelearnt based on a usage pattern to prevent the participant indicationcontrol from being automatically deactivated until the host startsspeaking immediately after the participant stops talking. In someaspects, the context determiner 126 includes natural languagerecognition to recognize words spoken by hosts and participants.

In some other aspects, the global participant indication model 136includes models that are common among all the hosts and the participantsof virtual meetings. For example, there may be a common model todeactivate participant indication requests of all the participants of avirtual meeting when the received meeting data includes an utterance bythe host to change a topic of presentation or discussion after using thepolling feature of the virtual meeting.

In some aspects, an output of the participant indication model includesa value of a confidence level of the prediction. In aspects, the valueof the confidence level of the prediction may be associated with aprobability distribution of alternatives of the prediction. For example,the value of the confidence level for the prediction is higher when alikelihood of the prediction is higher.

The meeting state manager 128 determines a meeting state based on thedetermined context for respective hosts and participants of the virtualmeeting. In aspects, a meeting state may include a host presentationstate, a participant presentation state, a conversation state, and apolling state. For example, when the determined context of the users ofa virtual meeting indicates the host speaking for more than apredetermined time, the meeting state manager 128 may determine the hostpresentation state as a meeting state. Similarly, when the determinedcontext of the users of the virtual meeting indicates a participantspeaking for more than the predetermined time, the meeting state manager128 may determine the participant presentation state as a meeting state.The meeting state manager 128 may determine polling as the meeting statewhen the determined context indicates the host mentions taking a poll.

The participant indication controller 130 automatically controlsparticipant indication requests for hosts and participants of a virtualmeeting. In aspects, a participant indication request may refer to anotice seeking for a focus of attention by the hosts and participants ofthe virtual meeting. For example, a raise hand feature may represent aparticipant indication feature of some virtual meeting applications. Inaspects, the participant indication controller 130 updates a status of aparticipant indication request (e.g., raising or lowering a hand) for aparticular user based on a determined context for the particular user.In some other aspects, the participant indication controller 130 mayupdate a participant indication request for a particular user, inresponse to a change in a meeting state. For example, the participantindication controller 130 may deactivate active participant indicationrequests of users of the virtual meeting when the meeting state changesfrom a polling state to another state. The polling state usesparticipant indication request as means for the users to expressrespective options for a poll.

In aspects, the participant indication controller 130 may transmit analert to the participant when a confidence level of the prediction basedon an output of the participant indication model is less than apredefined threshold. The alert may include a message that solicit theparticipant to lower the hand when the participant is no longerinterested in raising the hand to gain focus of the virtual meeting. Theparticipant indication controller 130 may automatically deactivate theparticipant indication request and lower the hand when the confidencelevel is higher than the threshold.

As will be appreciated, the various methods, devices, applications,features, etc., described with respect to FIG. 1 are not intended tolimit the system 100 to being performed by the particular applicationsand features described. Accordingly, additional controllerconfigurations may be used to practice the methods and systems hereinand/or features and applications described may be excluded withoutdeparting from the methods and systems disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the participant indication modelsaccording to aspects of the present disclosure. The example 200 includesparticipant indication models 202. The participant indication models 202include a global participant indication model 204 and a set ofindividual participant indication models 206A-C. In aspects, the globalparticipant indication model 204 enables determining a context that iscommon across the users of a virtual meeting. For example, the globalparticipant indication model includes a scenario where a speaker in avirtual meeting changes a topic of an utterance from one topic toanother. The output from the global participant indication model for thescenario may be to deactivate participant indication requests of allparticipants of the virtual meeting because of the change in the subjectmatter.

A meeting-specific participant indication model 208 enables determininga context that is specific to one or more virtual meetings. For example,the meeting-specific participant indication model 208 may be specific toa series of weekly staff meetings of a particular group of people. Anorganization-specific participant indication model 210 enablesdetermining a context that is specific to at least an organizationalgroup. For example, the organization-specific participant indicationmodel 210 may be specific to virtual meetings held by aproduct-marketing group of an organization.

In some aspects, the individual participant indication models 134include models that are specific to a host or a participant. Theindividual participant indication models 134, for example, may capturesome habits of respective users who tend to forget lowering a hand andmanually lowering the hand while someone else talks for a predefinedtime. The individual participant indication models 134 under thescenario specify deactivating the participant indication request for thehost or the participant when the host or the participant ends talkingand then someone else starts talking.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of meeting states according to aspects ofthe present disclosure. The example 300 illustrates a set of meetingstates 302. The set of meeting states 302 may include, but not limitedto, a host presentation 304, a participant presentation 306, aconversation 308, and a polling 310. Each of the meeting states 302represent distinct states of a virtual meeting. For example, a hostpresentation 304 corresponds to a state of the virtual meeting where thehost speaks and provides a presentation while others listen to the host.The host presentation 304 state may accommodate participants activatingrespective participant indication request (e.g., raising a hand) andasking questions. Similarly, the participant presentation 306 staterepresents a situation where a participant of a virtual meeting providesa presentation and/or speaks dominantly for more than a predeterminedtime. During the participant presentation 306, the hosts and otherparticipants may activate participant indication requests to solicit afocus of attention from the host and the speaking participant to askquestions.

Conversation 308 state represents a situation where more than one usersare interactively speaking without any one of them dominating. Forexample, a Q&A session and free discussions during a virtual meeting maycorrespond to the conversation 308 state. In aspects, the conversation308 state may accommodate participants activating participant indicationrequests when respective participants wishes to bring the host's focusof attention and give the floor to the participants for askingquestions. In some other aspects, the conversation 308 state may behighly interactive with participants talking for a less than apredetermined utterance duration at a time. Accordingly, in someaspects, the conversation 308 state may disable all the participantindication requests and encourage the participants to speak up orhand-wave over the video screen.

The polling state 310 represent a situation where the host is conductinga polling from the hosts and the participants of a virtual meeting. Inaspects, the virtual meeting server may receive an utterance speech madeby the host to request participants to cast a vote to one or moreoptions or answers to a given question. Accordingly, the participantsmay activate participant indication requests (e.g., raise a hand) tocast a vote in response to the question from the host. The host maycount a number of votes to determine a result of the polling.

In aspects, the meeting state manager (e.g., the meeting state manager128 in FIG. 1) may determine and update a meeting state of a virtualmeeting when the state changes from one to another. The participantindication controller 130 may deactivate active participant indicationrequests of one or more participants of the virtual meeting when thestate changes. For example, the participant indication controller 130may automatically deactivate participant indication requests of allparticipants of a virtual meeting when the meeting state changes betweenthe polling 310 state and any other state. A purpose of using theparticipant indication request during polling is to cast votes, which isdistinct from soliciting a focus of attention from the host to askquestions in any other meeting state. In some other aspects, theparticipant indication controller 130 may deactivate active participantindication requests of the host of a virtual meeting when the meetingstate changes from the conversation 308 mode to the host presentation304 state. The host has a control of the floor when the meeting state isthe host presentation 304.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of automatically controlling participantindication requests during a virtual meeting according to aspects of thepresent disclosure. The example 400A illustrates a sequence ofoperations in the virtual meeting system. The client device 402 (MeetingHost) transmits a speech utterance 420 by the host of the virtualmeeting to solicit vote for polling by initiating playback of thestatement “Raise your hand if you agree.” The context determiner 408determines taking a poll as a context based on the natural languageutterance by the host. The meeting state manager 410 sets polling as ameeting state. The polling starts 424. Hearing the host requesting tocast a vote, the client device 404 (Participant) interactively activatesa participant indication request (e.g., raising a hand) throughgraphical user interface. The meeting data receiver 406 receives thechange in user interface selections. The meeting data receiver 406 thensends a “raise hand” 428 as a received user interactive command to thecontext determiner 408. The context determiner 408 accordinglydetermines, in conjunction of use of the participant indication models,that the context is to activate a participant indication request for theparticipant. Accordingly, the context determiner 408 transmits a command430 to activate a participant indication request for the participant.The participant indication controller 412 in turn transmits a command432 to display the active participant indication (e.g., a raised hand)in the client device 404 (Participant) and another command 434 todisplay the active participant indication in the client device 402(Meeting Host).

After the polling ends, the meeting host using the client device 402(Meeting Host) may make utterance 436 “Let's end polling.” Based on theutterance, the Context determiner 408 may determine that the context ofthe meeting is to end the polling. Based on the determined context ofending the polling, the meeting state manager 410 may end the polling440 and start a host presentation 452 as a new meeting state.Accordingly, the context determiner 408 transmits a command fordeactivating participant indication request 442 to the participantindication controller 412. The participant indication controller 412then send a command to the client device 404 (Participant) to displayinactive participant indication (e.g., a lowered hand) 444 and anothercommand to the client device 402 (Meeting Host) to display inactiveparticipant indication (e.g., a lowered hand) 446. Subsequently, thehost starts speaking and the client device 402 (Meeting Host) sends thehost utterance 448 to the context determiner 408. The context determiner408, based on the utterance and the participant indication models,determines that a new context is the host presenting. The meeting statemanager 410 updates 450 the meeting state to the host presentation basedon the determined context.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example user interface of a virtual meetingapplication on the client device according to the present disclosure. Inparticular, the example 500 illustrates an example of a virtual meeting,which is taking place among the host 504, participant A 506 andparticipant B 508. The meeting title 502 is “Weekly Meeting.” Theexample 500 is an application screen for the participant A 510 asindicated in the bottom left corner. The example 500 shows three iconsfor respective users in the virtual meeting: the host 504, theparticipant A 506, and the participant B 508. The icon for theparticipant A 506 includes a graphical indicator of a hand icon, whichrepresents a participant's interest to be the focus of the virtualmeeting. In aspects, a display status of the graphical indication isbased on a participant indication request made by the participant A.

The example 500 indicates icons for controlling settings of theparticipant A joining the call. In the example, A's Video is turned ON512 and A's microphone is ON 514. The icon to change a participantindication request, a hand icon 516 (hand raised), for example,indicates that the activation request is active (e.g., the hand raised).In aspects, the active status of the participation indication requestmay be graphically displayed by the hand icon 516 and an indication ofthe hand in the vicinity area of a graphical representation ofParticipant A 506. The leave meeting 518 button ends the meeting ifselected by the user.

FIG. 6A is an example of a method for automatically controllingparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure. A general order of the operations for the method600A is shown in FIG. 6A. Generally, the method 600A begins with startoperation 602 and ends with end operation 618. The method 600A mayinclude more or fewer steps or may arrange the order of the stepsdifferently than those shown in FIG. 6A. The method 600A may be executedas a set of computer-executable instructions executed by a computersystem and encoded or stored on a computer readable medium. Further, themethod 600A can be performed by gates or circuits associated with aprocessor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a SOC or other hardware device.Hereinafter, the method 600A shall be explained with reference to thesystems, components, devices, modules, software, data structures, datacharacteristic representations, signaling diagrams, methods, etc.,described in conjunction with FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6B, 7, and 8A-B.

Following start operation 602, the method 600 begins with receiveoperation 604, which receives meeting data of a virtual meeting from theclient devices. The meeting data may include video data, audio data, andbackground acoustic data. For example, the meeting data may includeutterance made by the host as audio data. In aspects, the receiveoperation 604 may receive indication of a participant of the virtualmeeting a participant interest. The participant interest includesparticipating in a conversation in the virtual meeting. For example, theindication may be in one or more forms including video data, audio data,a timer (e.g., remaining time of a virtual meeting), chat texts or imagedata.

Activate operation 606 activates a participant indication request for aparticipant of a virtual meeting. In aspects, the activate operation 606may be in response to the participant interactively selecting one oficons (e.g., the hand icon 516 in FIG. 5) in a virtual meetingapplication to activate a participant indication request (e.g., raisinga hand). Additionally, or alternatively, the activate operation 606 mayinclude update operation that updates the participant indication requestfrom a previous state of the participant indication request.

Receive operation 608 receives a subsequent meeting data associated withthe virtual meeting from the client devices. The subsequent meeting datamay be subsequent to the meeting data that has previously received toupdate the participant indication request in the activate operation 606.The meeting data may include video data, audio data, and backgroundacoustic data. For example, the meeting data may include utterance madeby the host as audio data. In aspects, the receive operation 608 mayreceive video data, audio data, a timer (e.g., remaining time of avirtual meeting), chat texts or image data.

Determine operation 610 determines a global meeting context using aglobal participant indication model. In aspects, the global participantindication model includes conditions for determining contexts that maybe in common among hosts and participants of a virtual meeting. Forexample, the determine operation 610 may determine that a topic of apresentation has ended and no more time left in the allocated time ofthe virtual meeting. In aspects, the combination of the end of a topicand not more time left may correspond to automatically deactivatingactive participant indication request for at least one participant forthe virtual meeting. In some other aspects, the determine operation 610analyzes received video cues and signals. The determine operation 610determines that a particular participant appears to be distracted,looking away, and not reacting to the host and other participants. Thedetermine operation 608 further determines that the participantindication request for this particular participant is active.Accordingly, the determine operation 610 determines the context to bethe participant not engaged in the meeting and thus it is appropriate todeactivate the participant indication request for the participant.

Determine operation 612 determines individual meeting contexts forrespective hosts and participants of a virtual meeting. In particular,the determine operation 612 may use a combination of the globalparticipant indication model and the individual participant indicationmodel for a particular host or a participant. In aspects, the individualparticipant indication models are specific to individuals. For example,an individual participant indication model for a participant may betrained based on the fact that the participant typically manuallyactivate a participant indication request as soon as the systemautomatically deactivates the participant indication request after apolling completes. Accordingly, the determine operation 612 maydetermine to keep the active participant indication request even if thesystem deactivates active participant indication requests for the restof participants of the virtual meeting. In some aspects, the determineoperation 612 may including aggregating the global meeting context andthe individual meeting context by varying weights among the contexts andgenerating an aggregated meeting context. In some aspects, the weightsmay be based on attributes including attributes and topics of thevirtual meeting and participants.

Determine operation 614 determines a meeting state of the virtualmeeting. In particular, the determine operation 614 may use thedetermined meeting context to determine the meeting state. For example,the meeting state may one of: the host presentation, the participantpresentation, the conversation, and the polling. The host presentationrepresents the host making a presentation to participants of the virtualmeeting, primarily one way from the host. The participants may askquestions to the host by activating the participant indication request(e.g., raising a hand). The participant presentation represents one ofthe participants making a presentation to others in the virtual meeting.The virtual meeting permits asking questions by activating theparticipant indication request. The conversation state represents a freetwo-way or multi-way conversation among participants of the virtualmeeting. Spontaneous utterance may be prevalent without formal queuesfor speaking. For example, the poll state represents the host taking apoll of a specific topic using the raise hand feature of the virtualmeeting. In some aspects, the determine operation 614 may determine themeeting state based on the aggregated meeting context.

Update operation 616 automatically updates a participant indicationrequest based on the determined meeting context and/or the meetingstate. In particular, the update operation 616 may activate ordeactivate participant indication requests (e.g., raising or loweringhand). The update operation 616 causes the respective client devicesthat are associated with the virtual meeting to display the participantindication requests in an updated state. The end operation 618 ends themethod 600A.

As should be appreciated, operations 602-618 are described for purposesof illustrating the present methods and systems and are not intended tolimit the disclosure to a particular sequence of steps, e.g., steps maybe performed in different order, additional steps may be performed, anddisclosed steps may be excluded without departing from the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6B is an example of a method for automatically controllingparticipant indication requests in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure. A general order of the operations for the method600B is shown in FIG. 6B. Generally, the method 600B begins with startoperation 640 and ends with end operation 652. The method 600B mayinclude more or fewer steps or may arrange the order of the stepsdifferently than those shown in FIG. 6B. The method 600B can be executedas a set of computer-executable instructions executed by a computersystem and encoded or stored on a computer readable medium. Further, themethod 600B can be performed by gates or circuits associated with aprocessor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a SOC or other hardware device.Hereinafter, the method 600B shall be explained with reference to thesystems, components, devices, modules, software, data structures, datacharacteristic representations, signaling diagrams, methods, etc.,described in conjunction with FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 7, and 8A-B.

Following start operation 640, the method 600B begins with receiveoperation 642, which receives meeting data a participant of a virtualmeeting. In aspects, the meeting data may include video streaming of theparticipant participating in the virtual meeting, audio data from theparticipant, and/or background acoustic data from the participant, asexamples. In aspects, the receive operation 642 receives the meetingdata for the participant along with meeting data for all otherparticipants of the virtual meeting in a synchronous manner formultiplexing and transmitting respective meeting data to respectiveclient devices.

Receive operation 644 receives chat messages for the participant of thevirtual meeting. In aspects, the virtual meeting application serverprovides a chat messaging feature to hosts and participants of thevirtual meeting to exchange texts and images as they engage in thevirtual meeting via video and audio. In some aspects, participants mayuse the chat messaging to send and receive comments and information thatsupplement the virtual meeting using video and audio data streams.

Identify operation 646 identifies a cue for which a context indicates aneed for automatically updating participant indication requests. A cueis some indication in the meeting data (video/audio/background acousticdata, etc.). The cue has some meaning that implicates a context forautomatically controlling participant indication requests. In aspects,the identify operation 646 identifies the cue based on a combination ofa status of the participant indication request for the participant and atiming of the participant sending a chat message. For example, a cue asa cause for automatically disabling a participant indication request mayinclude a combination of conditions. For example, the combination mayinclude the participant having an active participant indication requestand actively sending (or receiving) chat messages.

Additionally, or alternatively, the cue may include one or more of aparticular noise or sound in background sounds (e.g., a telephoneringing, another person talking with the participant, and other audiodata and acoustic signal data from the virtual meeting). The cue mayfurther include textual conversations using messaging, speechutterances, closed caption data, mouse/pointer movements on the clientdevice (e.g., the client device 102B (Participant)), eye gaze associatedwith the participant, and camera information associated with theparticipant. The cue may yet further include facial informationassociated with the participant, gesture information associated with theparticipant indicative or inferable about dropping the raised hands, andpredefined information associated with a user preference to raise orlower hand. For example, having the cue where another person is talkingwith the participant as detected in the background sound may lower handbecause the participant is not focused on participating in the virtualmeeting despite the participant having requested the host's focus ofattention by raising hand.

Determine operation 648 determines a context of an action for anindividual based on a global participant indication model and anindividual participant indication model. In aspects, the determineoperation 648 uses the global participant indication model fordetermining a context that is in common with other participants of thevirtual meeting. The determine operation 648 uses the individualparticipant indication model for determining a context that is specificto the participant. For example, the determine operation 648 maydetermine the cue including the combination of conditions where theparticipant has the active participant indication request and activelysending (or receiving) chat messages as the following: the participantis focusing on chat messaging, possibly asking a question and no longerinterested in keeping the raised hand. In another example, theindividual participant indication model may have been trained to keepthe participant indication request active even when the frequent chatmessaging is taking place.

Deactivate operation 650 automatically deactivates the participantindication request for the participant in response to the determinedcontext where the participant actively communicates with otherparticipants using chat messages. In aspects, the virtual meeting serverinterprets that the participant may no longer be interested aparticipant indication request when the participant has the hand raisedbut communicating over chat messaging. The deactivate operation 650updates displaying the participant indication request (e.g., the hand)lowered on all the client devices used for the virtual meeting.Additionally or alternatively the deactivate operation 650 may transmita notice to the participant. The notice may solicit the participant tolower the hand if the participant is no longer interested inparticipating or the raised hand is no longer necessary. The endoperation 652 ends the method 600B.

As should be appreciated, operations 640-652 are described for purposesof illustrating the present methods and systems and are not intended tolimit the disclosure to a particular sequence of steps, e.g., steps maybe performed in different order, additional steps may be performed, anddisclosed steps may be excluded without departing from the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating physical components (e.g.,hardware) of a computing device 700 with which aspects of the disclosuremay be practiced. The computing device components described below may besuitable for the computing devices described above. In a basicconfiguration, the computing device 700 may include at least oneprocessing unit 702 and a system memory 704. Depending on theconfiguration and type of computing device, the system memory 704 maycomprise, but is not limited to, volatile storage (e.g., random accessmemory), non-volatile storage (e.g., read-only memory), flash memory, orany combination of such memories. The system memory 704 may include anoperating system 705 and one or more program tools 706 suitable forperforming the various aspects disclosed herein such. The operatingsystem 705, for example, may be suitable for controlling the operationof the computing device 700. Furthermore, aspects of the disclosure maybe practiced in conjunction with a graphics library, other operatingsystems, or any other application program and is not limited to anyparticular application or system. This basic configuration isillustrated in FIG. 7 by those components within a dashed line 708. Thecomputing device 700 may have additional features or functionality. Forexample, the computing device 700 may also include additional datastorage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example,magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage isillustrated in FIG. 7 by a removable storage device 709 and anon-removable storage device 710.

As stated above, a number of program tools and data files may be storedin the system memory 704. While executing on the at least one processingunit 702, the program tools 706 (e.g., an application 720) may performprocesses including, but not limited to, the aspects, as describedherein. The application 720 includes a meeting data receiver 722, a chatcontroller 724, a context determiner 726, a meeting state manager 728,and a participant indication controller 730, as described in more detailwith regard to FIG. 1. Other program tools that may be used inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure may include electronicmail and contacts applications, word processing applications,spreadsheet applications, database applications, slide presentationapplications, drawing or computer-aided application programs, etc.

Furthermore, aspects of the disclosure may be practiced in an electricalcircuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integratedelectronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing amicroprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements ormicroprocessors. For example, aspects of the disclosure may be practicedvia a system-on-a-chip (SOC) where each or many of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 7 may be integrated onto a single integratedcircuit. Such an SOC device may include one or more processing units,graphics units, communications units, system virtualization units andvarious application functionality all of which are integrated (or“burned”) onto the chip substrate as a single integrated circuit. Whenoperating via an SOC, the functionality, described herein, with respectto the capability of client to switch protocols may be operated viaapplication-specific logic integrated with other components of thecomputing device 700 on the single integrated circuit (chip). Aspects ofthe disclosure may also be practiced using other technologies capable ofperforming logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and NOT,including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantumtechnologies. In addition, aspects of the disclosure may be practicedwithin a general purpose computer or in any other circuits or systems.

The computing device 700 may also have one or more input device(s) 712,such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a sound or voice input device, atouch or swipe input device, etc. The output device(s) 714 such as adisplay, speakers, a printer, etc. may also be included. Theaforementioned devices are examples and others may be used. Thecomputing device 700 may include one or more communication connections716 allowing communications with other computing devices 750. Examplesof suitable communication connections 716 include, but are not limitedto, radio frequency (RF) transmitter, receiver, and/or transceivercircuitry; universal serial bus (USB), parallel, and/or serial ports.

The term computer readable media as used herein may include computerstorage media. Computer storage media may include volatile andnonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, or program tools. The system memory 704,the removable storage device 709, and the non-removable storage device710 are all computer storage media examples (e.g., memory storage).Computer storage media may include RAM, ROM, electrically erasableread-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other article of manufacture which can be usedto store information and which can be accessed by the computing device700. Any such computer storage media may be part of the computing device700. Computer storage media does not include a carrier wave or otherpropagated or modulated data signal.

Communication media may be embodied by computer readable instructions,data structures, program tools, or other data in a modulated datasignal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, andincludes any information delivery media. The term “modulated datasignal” may describe a signal that has one or more characteristics setor changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. Byway of example, and not limitation, communication media may includewired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, andwireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, andother wireless media.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate a computing device or mobile computing device800, for example, a mobile telephone, a smart phone, wearable computer(such as a smart watch), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, and thelike, with which aspects of the disclosure may be practiced. In someaspects, the client utilized by a user (e.g., user of client device 102in FIG. 1) may be a mobile computing device. With reference to FIG. 8A,one aspect of a mobile computing device 800 for implementing the aspectsis illustrated. In a basic configuration, the mobile computing device800 is a handheld computer having both input elements and outputelements. The mobile computing device 800 typically includes a display805 and one or more input buttons 810 that allow the user to enterinformation into the mobile computing device 800. The display 805 of themobile computing device 800 may also function as an input device (e.g.,a touch screen display). If included as an optional input element, aside input element 815 allows further user input. The side input element815 may be a rotary switch, a button, or any other type of manual inputelement. In alternative aspects, mobile computing device 800 mayincorporate more or less input elements. For example, the display 805may not be a touch screen in some aspects. In yet another alternativeaspect, the mobile computing device 800 is a portable phone system, suchas a cellular phone. The mobile computing device 800 may also include anoptional keypad 835. Optional keypad 835 may be a physical keypad or a“soft” keypad generated on the touch screen display. In various aspects,the output elements include the display 805 for showing a graphical userinterface (GUI), a visual indicator 820 (e.g., a light emitting diode),and/or an audio transducer 825 (e.g., a speaker). In some aspects, themobile computing device 800 incorporates a vibration transducer forproviding the user with tactile feedback. In yet another aspect, themobile computing device 800 incorporates input and/or output ports, suchas an audio input (e.g., a microphone jack), an audio output (e.g., aheadphone jack), and a video output (e.g., a HDMI port) for sendingsignals to or receiving signals from an external device.

FIG. 8B is a block diagram illustrating the architecture of one aspectof computing device, a server (e.g., an application server 110 andvirtual meeting server 120 in FIG. 1), a mobile computing device, etc.That is, the mobile computing device 800 can incorporate a system 802(e.g., a system architecture) to implement some aspects. The system 802can implemented as a “smart phone” capable of running one or moreapplications (e.g., browser, e-mail, calendaring, contact managers,messaging clients, games, and media clients/players). In some aspects,the system 802 is integrated as a computing device, such as anintegrated digital assistant (PDA) and wireless phone.

One or more application programs 866 may be loaded into the memory 862and run on or in association with the operating system 864. Examples ofthe application programs include phone dialer programs, e-mail programs,information management (PIM) programs, word processing programs,spreadsheet programs, Internet browser programs, messaging programs, andso forth. The system 802 also includes a non-volatile storage area 868within the memory 862. The non-volatile storage area 868 may be used tostore persistent information that should not be lost if the system 802is powered down. The application programs 866 may use and storeinformation in the non-volatile storage area 868, such as e-mail orother messages used by an e-mail application, and the like. Asynchronization application (not shown) also resides on the system 802and is programmed to interact with a corresponding synchronizationapplication resident on a host computer to keep the information storedin the non-volatile storage area 868 synchronized with correspondinginformation stored at the host computer. As should be appreciated, otherapplications may be loaded into the memory 862 and run on the mobilecomputing device 800 described herein.

The system 802 has a power supply 870, which may be implemented as oneor more batteries. The power supply 870 might further include anexternal power source, such as an AC adapter or a powered docking cradlethat supplements or recharges the batteries.

The system 802 may also include a radio interface layer 872 thatperforms the function of transmitting and receiving radio frequencycommunications. The radio interface layer 872 facilitates wirelessconnectivity between the system 802 and the “outside world,” via acommunications carrier or service provider. Transmissions to and fromthe radio interface layer 872 are conducted under control of theoperating system 864. In other words, communications received by theradio interface layer 872 may be disseminated to the applicationprograms 866 via the operating system 864, and vice versa.

The visual indicator 820 (e.g., LED) may be used to provide visualnotifications, and/or an audio interface 874 may be used for producingaudible notifications via the audio transducer 825. In the illustratedconfiguration, the visual indicator 820 is a light emitting diode (LED)and the audio transducer 825 is a speaker. These devices may be directlycoupled to the power supply 870 so that when activated, they remain onfor a duration dictated by the notification mechanism even though theprocessor 860 and other components might shut down for conservingbattery power. The LED may be programmed to remain on indefinitely untilthe user takes action to indicate the powered-on status of the device.The audio interface 874 is used to provide audible signals to andreceive audible signals from the user. For example, in addition to beingcoupled to the audio transducer 825, the audio interface 874 may also becoupled to a microphone to receive audible input, such as to facilitatea telephone conversation. In accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure, the microphone may also serve as an audio sensor tofacilitate control of notifications, as will be described below. Thesystem 802 may further include a video interface 876 that enables anoperation of an on-board camera 830 to record still images, videostream, and the like.

A mobile computing device 800 implementing the system 802 may haveadditional features or functionality. For example, the mobile computingdevice 800 may also include additional data storage devices (removableand/or non-removable) such as, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape.Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 8B by the non-volatilestorage area 868.

Data/information generated or captured by the mobile computing device800 and stored via the system 802 may be stored locally on the mobilecomputing device 800, as described above, or the data may be stored onany number of storage media that may be accessed by the device via theradio interface layer 872 or via a wired connection between the mobilecomputing device 800 and a separate computing device associated with themobile computing device 800, for example, a server computer in adistributed computing network, such as the Internet. As should beappreciated such data/information may be accessed via the mobilecomputing device 800 via the radio interface layer 872 or via adistributed computing network. Similarly, such data/information may bereadily transferred between computing devices for storage and useaccording to well-known data/information transfer and storage means,including electronic mail and collaborative data/information sharingsystems.

The description and illustration of one or more aspects provided in thisapplication are not intended to limit or restrict the scope of thedisclosure as claimed in any way. The claimed disclosure should not beconstrued as being limited to any aspect, for example, or detailprovided in this application. Regardless of whether shown and describedin combination or separately, the various features (both structural andmethodological) are intended to be selectively included or omitted toproduce an embodiment with a particular set of features. Having beenprovided with the description and illustration of the presentapplication, one skilled in the art may envision variations,modifications, and alternate aspects falling within the spirit of thebroader aspects of the general inventive concept embodied in thisapplication that do not depart from the broader scope of the claimeddisclosure.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for automaticallyupdating a participant indication request in a virtual meeting accordingto at least the examples provided in the sections below. The methodcomprises receiving an indication of a participant's interest to be afocus of the virtual meeting; after receiving the indication, causingdisplay of a graphical indicator associated with the participant'sinterest; after causing display of the graphical indicator, receivingmeeting data corresponding to the virtual meeting; determining, based onthe meeting data, a meeting context using a participant indicationmodel, wherein the participant indication model predicts the meetingcontext with one or more confidence levels based on one or moreattributes of the virtual meeting; and automatically deactivating, basedon the determined meeting context, a participant indication of theparticipant. The method further comprises automatically updating, basedat least on the determined meeting context, the participant indicationrequest of the participant of the virtual meeting, wherein theparticipant indication request includes lowering a hand; and causing,based on the updated participant indication request, display of thegraphical indicator, wherein the graphical indicator corresponds to thelowered hand. The meeting data includes at least one of: one or moretextual conversations, audio data, acoustic signal data, speechutterances, closed caption data, background sound, mouse/pointermovement data, eye gaze associated with the participant, facialinformation associated with the participant, gesture informationassociated with the participant, or predefined information associatedwith a user preference to raise or lower hand. The participantindication model is previously trained using prior meeting data, whereinthe prior meeting data corresponds to one or more meeting dataassociated with one or more prior virtual meetings. The automaticallydeactivating the participant indication request corresponds to, based ona confidence level of an output from the participant indication model,at least one of: transmitting a notice to the participant, wherein thenotice solicits the participant to lower the hand when no longerintending to participate, or causing display of the graphical indicatorrepresenting a lowered hand. The participant indication model includes aglobal participant indication model and an individual participantindication model, the method further comprising: determining, based atleast on the global participant indication model, a common meetingcontext, wherein the common meeting context is applicable to a pluralityof participants of the virtual meeting; and determining, based at leaston the individual participant indication model, an individual meetingcontext for the participant. The method further comprises receiving achat message sent from the participant; and determining, based at leaston the received chat message and a status of the participant indicationrequest by the participant, the meeting context, wherein the status ofthe participant indication request is active. The meeting state includespolling, and the method further comprises determining a meeting contextusing an participant indication model, wherein the meeting contextcorresponds to an end of the polling; and automatically deactivating,based on the determined meeting context, a participant indicationrequest of a plurality of participants of the virtual meeting. Theparticipant indication model includes a meeting-specific participantindication model and an organization-specific participant indicationmodel, the method further comprises determining, based at least on themeeting-specific participant indication model, a common meeting context,wherein the common meeting context is applicable to a plurality ofparticipants of a combination of the virtual meeting and previously heldvirtual meetings, wherein the plurality of participants include theparticipant; and determining, based at least on theorganization-specific participant indication model, wherein the commonmeeting context is applicable to a plurality of participants from anorganization, wherein the organization includes the participant.

Another aspect of the technology relates to a system for automaticallyupdating a participant indication request in a virtual meeting. Thesystem comprises: a processor; and a memory storing computer-executableinstructions that when executed by the processor cause the system to:receive an indication of a participant's interest to be a focus of thevirtual meeting; after receiving the indication, cause display of agraphical indicator associated with the participant's interest; aftercausing display of the graphical indicator, receive meeting datacorresponding to the virtual meeting; determine, based on the meetingdata, a meeting context using a participant indication model, whereinthe participant indication model predicts the meeting context with oneor more confidence levels based on one or more attributes of the virtualmeeting; and automatically deactivate, based on the determined meetingcontext, a participant indication of the participant. Thecomputer-executable instructions when executed further causes the systemto: automatically update, based at least on the determined meetingcontext, the participant indication request of the participant of thevirtual meeting. wherein the participant indication request includeslowering a hand; and cause, based on the updated participant indicationrequest, display of the graphical indicator, wherein the graphicalindicator corresponds to the lowered hand. The meeting data includes atleast one of: one or more textual conversations, audio data, acousticsignal data, speech utterances, closed caption data, background sound,mouse/pointer movement data, eye gaze associated with the participant,facial information associated with the participant, gesture informationassociated with the participant, or predefined information associatedwith a user preference to raise or lower hand. The participantindication model is previously trained using prior meeting data, whereinthe prior meeting data corresponds to one or more meeting dataassociated with one or more prior virtual meetings. The automaticallydeactivating the participant indication request corresponds to, based ona confidence level of an output from the participant indication model,at least one of: transmitting a notice to the participant, wherein thenotice solicits the participant to lower the hand when no longerintending to participate, or causing display of the graphical indicatorrepresenting a lowered hand. The computer-executable instructions whenexecuted further cause the system to: receive a chat message sent fromthe participant; and determine based on the received chat message and astatus of the participant indication request by the participant, themeeting context, wherein the status of the participant indicationrequest is active.

Another aspect of the technology relates to a computer-readable mediumstoring computer-executable instruction. A computer-readable recordingmedium storing computer-executable instructions, when executed by aprocessor, cause a computer system to: receive an indication of aparticipant's interest to be a focus of the virtual meeting; afterreceiving the indication, cause display of a graphical indicatorassociated with the participant's interest; after causing display of thegraphical indicator, receive meeting data corresponding to the virtualmeeting; determine, based on the meeting data, a meeting context using aparticipant indication model, wherein the participant indication modelpredicts the meeting context with one or more confidence levels based onone or more attributes of the virtual meeting; and automaticallydeactivate, based on the determined meeting context, a participantindication of the participant. The computer-executable instructions whenexecuted further causes the system to: automatically update, based atleast on the determined meeting context, the participant indicationrequest of the participant of the virtual meeting. wherein theparticipant indication request includes lowering a hand; and cause,based on the updated participant indication request, display of thegraphical indicator, wherein the graphical indicator corresponds to thelowered hand. The meeting data includes at least one of: one or moretextual conversations, audio data, acoustic signal data, speechutterances, closed caption data, background sound, mouse/pointermovement data, eye gaze associated with the participant, facialinformation associated with the participant, gesture informationassociated with the participant, or predefined information associatedwith a user preference to raise or lower hand. The participantindication model is previously trained using prior meeting data, whereinthe prior meeting data includes prior conversations associated with theparticipant in prior virtual meetings. The automatically deactivatingthe participant indication request corresponds to, based on a confidencelevel of an output from the participant indication model, at least oneof: transmitting a notice to the participant, wherein the noticesolicits the participant to lower the hand when no longer intending toparticipate, or causing display of the graphical indicator representinga lowered hand.

Any of the one or more above aspects in combination with any other ofthe one or more aspect. Any of the one or more aspects as describedherein.

1. A computer-implemented method of automatically updating a participantindication request in a virtual meeting, the method comprising:receiving an indication of a participant's interest to be a focus of thevirtual meeting; after receiving the indication, causing display of agraphical indicator associated with the participant's interest; aftercausing display of the graphical indicator, receiving meeting datacorresponding to the virtual meeting; determining, based on the meetingdata, a meeting context using a participant indication model, whereinthe participant indication model predicts the meeting context with oneor more confidence levels based on one or more attributes of the virtualmeeting, and wherein the meeting context, determined using theparticipant indication model, no longer indicates the participant'sinterest; and automatically causing, based on the determined meetingcontext, an update to the display of the graphical indicator, whereinthe update includes deactivating a participant indication of theparticipant.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the methodfurther comprising: automatically updating, based at least on thedetermined meeting context, the participant indication request of theparticipant of the virtual meeting, wherein the participant indicationrequest includes lowering a hand; and causing, based on the updatedparticipant indication request, display of the graphical indicator,wherein the graphical indicator corresponds to the lowered hand.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the meeting dataincludes at least one of: one or more textual conversations, audio data,acoustic signal data, speech utterances, closed caption data, backgroundsound, mouse/pointer movement data, eye gaze associated with theparticipant, facial information associated with the participant, gestureinformation associated with the participant, or predefined informationassociated with a user preference to raise or lower hand.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the participantindication model is previously trained using prior meeting data, whereinthe prior meeting data corresponds to one or more meeting dataassociated with one or more prior virtual meetings.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the automaticallydeactivating the participant indication request corresponds to, based ona confidence level of an output from the participant indication model,at least one of: transmitting a notice to the participant, wherein thenotice solicits the participant to lower the hand when no longerintending to participate, or causing display of the graphical indicatorrepresenting a lowered hand.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein the participant indication model includes a globalparticipant indication model and an individual participant indicationmodel, the method further comprising: determining, based at least on theglobal participant indication model, a common meeting context, whereinthe common meeting context is applicable to a plurality of participantsof the virtual meeting; and determining, based at least on theindividual participant indication model, an individual meeting contextfor the participant.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, themethod further comprising: receiving a chat message sent from theparticipant; and determining, based at least on the received chatmessage and a status of the participant indication request by theparticipant, the meeting context, wherein the status of the participantindication request is active.
 8. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the meeting state includes polling, the method furthercomprising: determining a meeting context using a participant indicationmodel, wherein the meeting context corresponds to an end of the polling;and automatically deactivating, based on the determined meeting context,a participant indication request of a plurality of participants of thevirtual meeting.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereinthe participant indication model includes a meeting-specific participantindication model and an organization-specific participant indicationmodel, the method further comprising: determining, based at least on themeeting-specific participant indication model, a common meeting context,wherein the common meeting context is applicable to a plurality ofparticipants of a combination of the virtual meeting and previously heldvirtual meetings, wherein the plurality of participants include theparticipant; and determining, based at least on theorganization-specific participant indication model, wherein the commonmeeting context is applicable to a plurality of participants from anorganization, wherein the organization includes the participant.
 10. Asystem for automatically updating a participant indication request in avirtual meeting, the system comprising: a processor; and a memorystoring computer-executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the system to: receive an indication of a participant'sinterest to be a focus of the virtual meeting; after receiving theindication, cause display of a graphical indicator associated with theparticipant's interest; after causing display of the graphicalindicator, receive meeting data corresponding to the virtual meeting;determine, based on the meeting data, a meeting context using aparticipant indication model, wherein the participant indication modelpredicts the meeting context with one or more confidence levels based onone or more attributes of the virtual meeting, and wherein the meetingcontext, determined using the participant indication model, no longerindicates the participant's interest; and automatically cause, based onthe determined meeting context, an update to the display of thegraphical indicator, wherein the update includes deactivating aparticipant indication of the participant.
 11. The system of claim 10,the computer-executable instructions when executed further causing thesystem to: automatically update, based at least on the determinedmeeting context, the participant indication request of the participantof the virtual meeting, wherein the participant indication requestincludes lowering a hand; and cause, based on the updated participantindication request, display of the graphical indicator, wherein thegraphical indicator corresponds to the lowered hand.
 12. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the meeting data includes at least one of: one or moretextual conversations, audio data, acoustic signal data, speechutterances, closed caption data, background sound, mouse/pointermovement data, eye gaze associated with the participant, facialinformation associated with the participant, gesture informationassociated with the participant, or predefined information associatedwith a user preference to raise or lower hand.
 13. The system of claim10, wherein the participant indication model is previously trained usingprior meeting data, wherein the prior meeting data corresponds to one ormore meeting data associated with one or more prior virtual meetings.14. The system of claim 10, wherein the automatically deactivating theparticipant indication request corresponds to, based on a confidencelevel of an output from the participant indication model, at least oneof: transmitting a notice to the participant, wherein the noticesolicits the participant to lower the hand when no longer intending toparticipate, or causing display of the graphical indicator representinga lowered hand.
 15. The system of claim 10, the computer-executableinstructions when executed further causing the system to: receive a chatmessage sent from the participant; and determine based on the receivedchat message and a status of the participant indication request by theparticipant, the meeting context, wherein the status of the participantindication request is active.
 16. A computer-readable storage mediumstoring computer-executable instructions that when executed by aprocessor cause a computer system to: receive an indication of aparticipant's interest to be a focus of the virtual meeting; afterreceiving the indication, cause display of a graphical indicatorassociated with the participant's interest; after causing display of thegraphical indicator, receive meeting data corresponding to the virtualmeeting; determine, based on the meeting data, a meeting context using aparticipant indication model, wherein the participant indication modelpredicts the meeting context with one or more confidence levels based onone or more attributes of the virtual meeting, and wherein the meetingcontext, determined using the participant indication model, no longerindicates the participant's interest; and automatically cause, based onthe determined meeting context, an update to the display of thegraphical indicator, wherein the update includes deactivating aparticipant indication of the participant.
 17. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 16, the computer-executable instructions whenexecuted further causing the system to: automatically update, based atleast on the determined meeting context, the participant indicationrequest of the participant of the virtual meeting, wherein theparticipant indication request includes lowering a hand; and cause,based on the updated participant indication request, display of thegraphical indicator, wherein the graphical indicator corresponds to thelowered hand.
 18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16,wherein the meeting data includes at least one of: one or more textualconversations, audio data, acoustic signal data, speech utterances,closed caption data, background sound, mouse/pointer movement data, eyegaze associated with the participant, facial information associated withthe participant, gesture information associated with the participant, orpredefined information associated with a user preference to raise orlower hand.
 19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16,wherein the participant indication model is previously trained usingprior meeting data, wherein the prior meeting data includes priorconversations associated with the participant in prior virtual meetings.20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein theautomatically deactivating the participant indication requestcorresponds to, based on a confidence level of an output from theparticipant indication model, at least one of: transmitting a notice tothe participant, wherein the notice solicits the participant to lowerthe hand when no longer intending to participate, or causing display ofthe graphical indicator representing a lowered hand.